February 27, 2009

A New Learning Tool: siftables

This MIT student is working on new human to computer interfaces. It is a great presentation.



I think that the impact of how people interact with this type of technology is so interesting. I wonder if you could add the same kind of interactivity between consenting iphones or other devices such as your television.  Pour your playlist from your iphone into your friends?  Or the photos from your camera into your laptop. That would be cool.

From a learning perspective, it is interesting to consider a learning activity that allowed you to build fluency, like the ones in the examples, but also a lot of other learning applications. You could most likely create a lot of simulations where the block represents an real world object or condition and displays a color graphic or plays a sound based on many different factors of proximity.

Cool stuff. 
Blogged with the Flock Browser

4 comments:

  1. This idea seems phenomenal. I can think of so many ways to indulge my high school writing classes, encouraging their desire to write and create stories.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The idea of the siftables is such a wonderful innovation. I work with elementary students. The interactive approach would fit the many learning styles I come in contact with from the youngest kindergartners to the oldest fifth grade students. The learning experience and interactive methods would draw in all my students that love to interact with their learning environment. Students would be fascinated by the technology and drawn in by a fun way to learn. It just has so many possibilities for different learning experiences from math to writing to musical application. Has siftables been introduced on the educational market? I am very sure it would be a hit with educators and students world wide.

    ReplyDelete
  3. What a creative way to get students thinking. Writing is definately an area that could be influenced by this technology.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I am absolutely astounded that something like siftables exists! I'm imagining the many wonderful uses this item would have in the classroom. You could easily engage students in spelling and mathematics. Many siftables could create sentences, whereby you impose grammar. This is a stunning piece of technology! As a current English teacher, I'm constantly looking for ways to engage my students and keep their interest. I think this might be one way to do it.

    ReplyDelete